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IS ENTOMOLOGY PROGRESSING? 



(By the Editor.) 



An apparent increase of crime may be caused by a greater 

 efficiency of the police. More criminals will be captured, 

 more will be tried, and more will be convicted : statistical 

 tables will show, to the horror of the civilized portion of the 

 community, a great increase of crime, whereas after all the 

 increase is not in the crimes committed, but in the criminals 

 detected. 



In like manner many persons are apt to take up the idea 

 that a greatly increased number of persons are now occupying 

 themselves with Entomology, simply because, owing to the 

 greater efficiency of our Entomological police, a collector can 

 hardly make a day's excursion without finding his doings in 

 print. So that the apparently increased activity of our col- 

 lectors may only arise from the movements of each being 

 noted. 



That this publication of each other's movements reacts 

 favourably upon Entomologists may readily be admitted : it 

 produces the sympathy of a crowd; each finding himself no 

 longer isolated, and working only for his own amusement, 

 finds himself placed in a higher and more unselfish position ; 

 he works now for the amusement and instruction of others as 

 well as for his own. 



Each collector may thus be led to more vigorous exertions, 

 and an increased crop of insects will be found in his store 



